Family says shark victim died doing what he loved

Sense of adventure, work on BP well remembered

Updated 8:09 am, Monday, October 24, 2011

George ''Thomas'' Wainwright, 32, of Houston, is the third person killed by a great white in Western Australia in two months.

George ''Thomas'' Wainwright, 32, of Houston, is the third person killed by a great white in Western Australia in two months.

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Family says shark victim died doing what he loved

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A Houston man killed this weekend by a great white shark in Australia was doing what he enjoyed most - fishing and diving - at the time of the brutal attack, his father said.

George Thomas Wainwright, 32, suffered fatal injuries Saturday when he was bitten by a 10-foot great white during a solo dive off the coast of Rottnest Island near Perth, Western Australia.

The avid outdoorsman and Texas A&M graduate was a marine systems engineer involved with capping the Macondo well after last year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wainwright - whose body was recovered by the college friends he was boating with - is the third man killed by a great white in the state in two months.

"This is a unique set of circumstances, and I'm desperately ... praying this is not the beginning of a new trend ... and we're going to have these on a regular basis," Western Australia state Fisheries Minister Norman Moore said on Sunday.

West Australian fisheries officers have been ordered to hunt down and kill the shark that fatally mauled Wainwright, who went by his middle name, Thomas.

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Barry Bruce, an Australian marine biologist, said it was unlikely that a single, lurking predator killed the three recent victims. "What we've seen tragically is three cases of people by sheer bad luck being in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

Sharks kill fewer than one swimmer a year on average in Australian waters, officials said.

Operated ROVs

As an engineer, Wainwright helped control remote-operated vehicles, or ROVs, that worked 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico to cap the oil spill. "He thought that what they were doing was a great accomplishment," said his sister, Brenda Wainwright, 41.

He was working for the Boa Group at the time, but was most recently employed by Oceaneering International while in Australia.

Wainwright grew up in Panama City, Fla., graduated from Texas A&M University in 2007 and lived in the Houston area until he got an opportunity to move to Australia while working for Oceaneering International, said Wainwright's father, George Wainwright of Panama City. He also held a master's license with the U.S. Coast Guard to operate vessels of up to 100 tons.

His upbringing in the Florida panhandle sparked an obsession with the ocean as he and his family frequently enjoyed water sports and fishing, Brenda Wainwright said.

His work to respond to the Gulf of Mexico spill was especially important to him, she said.

"He really was pleased that they were able to try to return the Gulf to some semblance of normal since he grew up here, and it was the area that he loved," Brenda Wainwright said.

Wainwright's career had taken him around the world, with stints in Malaysia and China, Brenda Wainwright said.

"He was a multifaceted person who did more in 32 years than most people would have done in their lives," she said.

Officials at Oceaneering International offered to fly the Wainwrights to Australia, but they declined because they were struggling to cope with the tragedy, the elder Wainwright said.

"It's something you're not able to get your hands around," the grieving father said.

Wainwright is survived by his parents, including mother Sharon, his sisters, Brenda Wainwright and Wanda Wainwright, and a niece, all of Panama City.